Oh, how I heart Publix

It's Things I Love Thursday (how did that happen???), and the thing I'm sharing this week is more of a place - Publix, my personal favorite grocery store. I know lots of people think Publix is more expensive, but it's not, if you shop the sales. Plus, everyone there is SO nice, and they know me and Baby, so it makes shopping much more enjoyable.

I did my usual grocery shopping at Publix this morning with Baby, after a trip to the park, and though I got some awesome deals, I got a pretty cool surprise on my receipt - an invitation to a survey! I've never seen a Publix survey! Only the first 125 customers from each store are eligible, but they're giving away $1000 gift cards, but I can't remember how many (if it said). Make sure to go visit your Publix soon, to make sure you can enter the giveaway. It would be so awesome if I won a Publix gift card! That would be so amazing. Good luck to anyone who enters!

PS - Sorry I've been MIA this week, I've been recovering from all the birthday festivities. More on that to come.

He's officially one (in thirty minutes)

So, a year ago today, I was getting prepped for a C-section. Baby had decided he didn't really want to come out, so try as I might, I couldn't push him out, and my OB had strongly recommended a C-section. There I was, frightened about a surgery, but so excited to meet this little guy who had been kicking the crap out of my insides for months. I still don't think I can describe that moment with words - seeing him for the first time was one of the most amazing moments in my life. No, the most amazing. Definitely.

And now, a year later, Baby is toddling around, and he's so different from that little boy I first met. The little boy I first met was sleepy and cuddly, and this little boy is always on the move, but still a little cuddly when he gets tuckered out. It's amazing how much he has grown in this first year of his life, how many things he has learned how to do, and it's incredible to think of how much growing remains.

There have been some truly awesome moments in this last year - between the first steps and hearing "mama" for the first time...the very first time he rolled over and totally surprised me...the first time he seemed to really know who I was...the first time he smiled...what an amazing year. I'll never forget it, thanks to the thousands of pictures I took, this blog, and my handy-dandy journal. I don't want to forget a single moment of it, and I can't wait to see what's yet to come.

OK, enough sap for now. :)

The smash cake

Well, I've officially decorated Baby's first smash cake, which he will have this evening with his mommy and daddy and honorary uncle (Daddy's best friend, who's in town for Baby's birthday). Along with some presents of course, it's the extent of the celebrating we've done today, really. We went to My Gym, as usual, and, and Baby's aunt and cousin called to sing happy birthday. And I decorated the smash cake. Ta da!


I know, the writing looks pink. It wasn't supposed to be. It was supposed to be red. That's not a good sign for Elmo, who I'll decorate tonight, so stay tuned! I've made the frosting, and refrigerated it, like Wilton recommended (and I didn't do with the test Elmo cake I made a month ago). So we'll see if that makes frosting Elmo any easier.

The slightly early Friday Five

And now it's time for the Friday Five - five moments from the week that were pretty memorable or awesome:

1. Baby walking...and walking...and walking...
2. Baby falling...and falling...and having an awfully close encounter with a wooden slide at My Gym, but he was spared by a quick-reacting fellow mom.
3. My Publix cashier handing me this week's flyer one day early, on Wednesday, when I made a quick run in for a few loose ends.
4. Removing Elmo #2 from the cake pan today and seeing the cake all in one piece.
5. Valentine's Day dinner with Husband.

Happy Friday!

Birthday cake madness: Elmo took two tries

Well, Elmo cake #1 wound up out of the pan minus two eyes and a nose. Not very pretty. So, perfectionist that I am, I had to make another, and I wasn't willing to wait until Husband came home and did the dishes for me. I was a big girl and washed the dishes myself. I baked Elmo cake #2, and it came out infinitely better. Take a look for yourself:

Obviously, Elmo #2 came out better. The difference? The way I greased the pan. I used Wilton's expensive Cake Release spray for Elmo #1. Didn't do so well. For Elmo #2, I went back to Crisco, old faithful, and greased the heck out of it, followed by some nice flour to fully coat the pan. It worked MUCH better. So much for listening to Wilton when they say to use their own products. Stay tuned for how the decorating turns out!

Birthday cake madness continues!

So, after the difficulties yesterday with baking Baby's two smash cakes (one for tomorrow, one for his party on Saturday), I went out and bought an oven thermometer and darn it - the oven was wrong! It claimed to be pre-heated to 350. Um, no. Try just barely 300. It eventually made it up to 350, but it took a good while. Clearly, today, when I bake the Elmo cake for Saturday, I will be making sure the oven thermometer says that it's 350 before I put the darn thing in there. Yesterday was so stressful because of all that mess. Here's hoping today's baking session this afternoon will go better!!

Seriously, he'll be one tomorrow? No way...

I'm in denial that Baby will be one tomorrow. For whatever reason, I find it hard to believe that it was one year ago that I was suffering from contractions and multiple insertions of an epidural...and then holding that squirming, screaming baby of mine. Maybe I don't want him to grow up. Maybe that's it. Or maybe I'm just stressing about his party (likely, but probably has nothing to do with this). I think that when he's one, I feel like he won't be a baby anymore. He'll be a little boy. A toddler. Not a baby who likes to cuddle with his mommy, and fall asleep on her chest (oh, how I loved when he would do that when he was itty-bitty). Part of me wishes he could stay a baby forever, but part of me is very excited for this next year, to see what kind of a little boy he will become. Will he be fearless? Will he be shy? Will he be an adventure-seeker? Will he be creative? At the same time, I know it will be a tough year, as he tries to assert his independence, and I try to teach him boundaries and rules. I think I'm just being a mommy, who wants to protect her baby as long as possible. It's pretty hard to protect Baby these days, between the scaling of anything he can climb, toddling around whenever he feels like it, and crawling faster than I've seen some people jog. I guess maybe I'll have to come up with a new nickname for Baby...maybe Toddler...or Little Boy..those are pathetic, I have to do better than that. So, off I go, to brainstorm on a new name, and to try to enjoy Baby's last real day of babyhood.

Things I Love Thursday, Part Deux

Yep, I know, I already blogged about something I love. Shouldn't I wait save this other thing I love for next week? Well, inevitably, I'll totally forget about it by then, so I better jot it down before I do indeed forget.

I adore Baby Cheapskate, one of the best baby-related money saving blogs out there. Not only does Angie share the best deals with you, but she also has some great resources, like spreadsheets on how many diapers come in each different sized pack, the Cheep Peeps network which can help you find a deal when you're in need of something in particular. Cheep Peeps also can help you figure out what other people think of certain baby gear, diapers, really anything baby related. It's a pretty awesome site. I highly recommend it!

Things I Love Thursday

This has been a week full of cleaning, so it's time to sing the praises of one of the absolute BEST purchases my husband and I made off of our wedding registry (seeing as though no one bought it for us): the Dyson DC07 Cyclone Animal Upright Vacuum, Purple



This vacuum is one of the most powerful appliances in our house. We used to have two dogs and two cats pre-Baby along with tile floors everywhere except the bedrooms. We had balls of fur rolling around like tumbleweeds. Not after we bought this vacuum, though. It was the only thing I'd ever seen really attack the floors and find all the pet hair, and in an amazingly short period of time. If only it ran itself! Now, with Baby so intent on finding things in the carpet to put his mouth, I vacuum much more often, which I'm sure helps, but it's just an amazing vacuum. It's got a million attachments, including a pretty cool one for vacuuming upholstery. It's also incredibly easy to empty. It has no bag, which is nice, so you just detach the canister, put it over a garbage can, and hit the magic button. Occasionally, if I've waited too long to empty it, I have to put on a glove and help some of the pet hair come out of the canister, but that's my own darn fault for filling it past the line.

Birthday cake madness begins!

For whatever reason, I decided this morning that I needed to get started with the baking festivities for this weekend's first birthday for Baby. I proceeded to bake a simple yellow cake, from my all-time favorite cooking source, America's Test Kitchen. Well, I baked it in a small round, like the size of a top tier of a wedding cake, for Baby's smash cake. Sounds good so far, right? Wrong. Wilton and America's Test Kitchen clearly do not agree on how long the cake takes to bake. Wilton said 25-30 minutes. In reality, it took almost 45. A bit of a disparity, huh? It sure does look pretty though - look:
I used the leftover batter to make some cupcakes, for us grownups to eat, and plan to make a second smash cake with the rest of the batter after this one cools off and is out of the pan. If that ever happens.

Woo! Now, all I'll have to bake tomorrow is Elmo - and let's hope that he doesn't lose an eye again!